Thoughts on Season Two

PREVIOUSLY, ON ENTERPRISE...

Back when I wrote up my Season One overview, I observed my pleasant surprise at how good much of the series was. It had its flaws, notably an overabundance of generic "filler" episodes and a regular character (Mayweather) who just didn't work. But all the non-Mayweather characters worked, and the first season did a suprisingly decent job of juggling a large ensemble so that each of the non-Mayweather characters got an opportunity to shine and to interact with each other. At the same time, potential was created to explore several arcs and to allow the humans to create a genuine place for themselves in an interstellar community.

It wasn't a brilliant first season, but it was a promising one. At the time, I wrote that it had gone through its shakedown run, done its job in showing that the series had potential, and that what was needed now was for it to raise its game in Season Two.


Well, if the mission was for the series to raise its game for its sophomore season... It failed. Utterly.


CHARACTERS, STAY IN YOUR BOXES!

In every significant respect, Season Two is much worse than Season One. The steps it takes don't advance the series or characters much, and in some cases even undermine development that had already occurred.

Nowhere is this more apparent than by looking at the characters. Prior to the season finale, there is only minimal development of the characters of Archer, Trip, and T'Pol, and no development of any of the supporting characters. Archer shows some progress in dealing with alien species, being less rash and judgmental than in Season One. But that was a direction he was already taking by the end of Season One, and nothing new is added to that until Cogenitor - very late in the season. Trip gets a lot of episodes (too many) around the midseason. But rather than advance his character, these episodes just try to let themselves be carried by his easygoing and likable persona. Nothing new is added to Trip's character until (again) Cogenitor. It's all just coasting.

The supporting cast is treated even worse. In the first season, every character worked except for Mayweather, and every character got a chance to interact with the others. In this season, the characters are all kept in boxes. We no longer see Hoshi practicing her linguistics skills in the mess with Phlox or T'Pol, and gone is the development of a mentor relationship between her and T'Pol, with T'Pol teaching her to control her anxieties. In fact, the two get almost no interaction at all. That Hoshi comes across more strongly than Mayweather is entirely down to Linda Park's performance, as she takes every small moment she's given and does as much with it as possible. In terms of scripting, she's in the same, "Don't use until Christmas" box that Mayweather is kept in.

Reed is not treated much better. After an excellent episode in Minefield, he is mostly sidelined and given no interaction with anyone except for Trip. No Reed/Hoshi, Reed/Phlox, or Reed/random crewmember interactions. For that matter, even the Big Three mostly just interact with each other and sometimes Phlox. They're all kept in their boxes. The creators may open up and play with the Archer, T'Pol, and Trip dolls more often than the others, but there is relatively little sense of them being a cohesive crew - something which was not a problem during Season One!

 

I can only sit here and wonder what happened, that the promising interactions among the regulars have all but ceased in the show's second season, leaving all of the characters flatter as a result.


DIET STORYTELLING: NOW WITH 60% LESS DRAMA!

The season actually starts out promisingly. Shockwave 2 isn't as good as Part One was, but it's still good - and honestly, it's very rare to find a Part 2 of anything that's as good as Part One. Most of the first disc of the DVD set consists of good episodes, and that continues into the second disc. The Minefield/Dead Stop pairing works particularly well, with one episode leading directly into the next, and with good character scenes and good scripts marking both stories.

 

Then it takes a wrong turn. The entire middle portion of the season is made up of one generic standalone episode after another. A few of these are good episodes, and only a couple of episodes are actively bad.  But there are no standouts, and the overall flood of "OK, but ordinary" shows becomes downright soul-sucking after a while. During that midseason patch, it becomes work to move on to the next episode.

Perhaps criticisms from the Continuity Police over Vulcans with their own agendas and too much time-travel scared the writers and producers away from the potentially interesting plot arcs of the Temporal Cold War and the Vulcan/human relations. Instead, we got served a half-season of pap. Nothing in it to make the Continuity Police complain, but nothing in it to make anyone particularly interested in watching more of it either.

LATE IMPROVEMENT

Ironically, the episode that sees things pick up again is probably Stigma, which returns us to the idea of a Vulcan society that has its own agenda, isn't always benevolent, and has become less tolerant of dissenting views than had once been the case. The irony here is that this is the episode that gives T'Pol "Vulcan AIDS" - which should forever change her relationship with the High Command. Instead, T'Pol and her Vulcan AIDS are never even mentioned again, not even in passing by Dr. Phlox, and certainly not by Soval who she meets up with again in the very next episode! I'm not saying that T'Pol should henceforth be defined by her mindmelding disease. But surely it should create repercussions in her relationship with the High Command, and not just be completely forgotten about for the remainder of the season?

Despite that, the episode is a good one, and one which returns Enterprise to its major plot arcs: the Vulcans, the Temporal Cold War, and the Klingons. From here, there are several good episodes, some of them very good. Despite a blip with the wretched Bounty, the season ends with a run of fairly high quality shows. Even without the season finale changing the series' focus, the lift in quality would have made me more optimistic about Season Three. With that change, I find myself actively looking forward to the new season.

The finale is excellent, one of only three great episodes in the season. I like the way the Temporal Cold War is worked into this shift, with Silik being the one to bring the message about the Xindi to Archer. The lead Archer is following comes from an unreliable source. Are the Xindi actually responsible, or is Silik working another agenda? Even if Silik is passing along good information, what price will he exact for helping Archer? And what ramifications might there be for Archer's space battle with the Klingons?


LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE

OK, wish list for Season Three. My Season Two wish list went almost entirely unfulfilled, but I live in hope. For Season Three, I would like to see this change of direction embraced. No easy fixes to the dilemma created in The Expanse. Let the story run a good half-season, even a full season. They have gone into a region of space even the Vulcans and Klingons are afraid of. There is no excuse now not to present some truly alien settings and situations. So DROP THE GENERIC RUNAROUNDS!

 

I do want to see Archer and Trip continuing to feel their anger, and to be a bit more willing to use force. But I don't want "force" to be their default, and where it is their default response I want it to blow up in their faces at least once. I want Archer to have to use his mind, not his ship's upgraded weapons systems, to resolve this situation. We saw that probe in the precredit sequence, right? I don't care if Enterprise now has "photonic torpedoes," they are clearly technologically outclassed. Let that be the default situation - a small fish in a big pond, with the crew having to make allies inside the Expanse in order to survive.

Beyond that, I want to see a return to Season One in terms of character interaction. Let us see Archer, Trip, and T'Pol interacting with the supporting cast, and not just in those cast members' spotlight episodes. Hoshi is a potentially very good character, played by a good actress, who has been inexplicably sidelined.  Do something with her!  And do something new with Mayweather, too. He can't be saving space freighters from pirates within The Expanse, so his spotlight episode will have to have a new plot now, right?

 

It also might be a good idea to introduce some recurring characters among the crew. Season One got a boost from Cutler, even if the actress did leave for another series (and then died young sometime later). Create some new recurring characters, maybe even let us see an episode or two from the viewpoint of one of the average, non-command staff crew members. It's hardly a revolutionary concept for an episode, but it might allow us to see new facets of our regulars.

Most of all, I hope Season Three is as much of an improvement as I've heard is the case. The first season was competent but only occasionally more than that, which made it important for Season Two to be better. Instead, Season Two was much worse than Season One.  I'm not surprised that viewers jumped ship and mostly never came back. I suspect the show had already passed its point of no return with mainstream viewers, and only got two additional seasons because of the Star Trek label.

 

But I don't care about ratings, and I don't even care that much about a long run. The show has two seasons left. It would be very nice if they were two seasons of good television, and not more generic pap.

 

 

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Thoughts on Season One

I started watching Enterprise with trepidation. This was Trek's "franchise killer," after all. Hardcore Trek fans - many of them, at least - cite this as the worst of the franchise, worse even than Voyager, and still regard Rick Berman and (to a lesser extent) Brannon Braga as Trek anti-Christs. Go to IMDB, and you can find a thread under Rick Berman's name wishing him a Happy Birthday... with posters down the thread telling him to go throw himself in front of a truck, among even less pleasant posts.

Given how quickly I abandoned Voyager on its initial airing, I Netflix'd Disc One with a sense of morbid curiosity. "I wonder how bad this is?"

Imagine my surprise to find a generally well-structured, well-acted pilot, followed by a pair of flawed, but generally interesting standalones. Discs Two and Three came along and presented more varied quality, with a few dire episodes (Terra Nova, Fortunate Son), and mediocre runarounds (Unexpected, Civilization), alternating with far stronger fare.  The good was very good... but some of the bad was truly dire, and it wasn't until Dear Doctor truly delivered on the potential of the series with a thoughtful, controversial episode that simply would not fit any other Trek series' format that I finally decided that yes, I would stay on board for the full series.

By this point, I am no longer Netflixing Enterprise, but have instead purchased the full series set. It has become my second-favorite Trek spinoff, behind Deep Space Nine.  I'm trying very hard to keep myself unspoiled for the remainder of this series, and I look forward to experiencing each episode as something totally new to me.


Good Characters vs. Weak Filler:

I like the characters. I like Archer's headstrong nature, and I like that he sometimes behaves stupidly and sometimes does the wrong thing. I like the evolving friendship between Archer and T'Pol, and the tentative friendship/potential romance(?) between T'Pol and Trip. I like Malcolm Reed and his obsession with making things go "boom!" I like Hoshi and her enthusiasm for new languages and cultures - clashing harshly with her fear (rather refreshing, in a Trek show) of not only perilous situations, but the judgment of others and even of cramped spaces. I like Dr. Phlox, a character who had the potential to be stupid comic relief, but in John Billingsley's hands has become equal parts wise and creepy, cheerful to the point of mania, and alien to a degree where he often seems less emotional than T'Pol. You could shove Mayweather out of an airlock, and it would likely be weeks (or months) before I'd even notice he was gone... but that's a better track record on characters than most Trek spinoffs have managed.

I don't like the series' tendency to fall back on formula Trek "filler episodes" to pad out its episode count. Episodes such as Terra Nova, Civilization, Rogue Planet, and the like could easily come from any Trek series, and only serve to diminish this series' own sense of identity. I suspect I'm right about why these episodes exist.  When you have to make 25 episodes a season, you fall back on formula filler shows to stretch the episode count.  Speaking just for myself, I'd rather have shorter seasons without this filler. I much prefer seeing the characters struggle with an uncertain technological place in the universe, or watching them embark on fairly routine missions (Strange New World, Breaking the Ice) and finding themselves overcome with awe at the wonder of just being in space. When I see Archer playing Kirk - or worse, Picard - it just doesn't fit.


Season Two Wishlist:

So on to what I'd like to see in Season Two.  I'd like more genuine exploration. More episodes in which they find themselves in truly alien situations (ala Vox Sola), and have to think their way out. More situations with the humans finding themselves technologically outclassed by other races. And yes, I'm still waiting for Archer to make not only a mistake, but a truly disastrous misstep. This series' format demands Archer innocently stick his foot in and do something catastrophic... and no, Shockwave doesn't count; Archer needs to actually be at fault. Of course, I'd like more on the Temporal Cold War as well, though Season One extras make it clear that this was evidently a network stipulation, with Braga seeming mystified that in a show set more than 100 years in the future, the network still demanded something "futuristic" within the concept.


Overall:

Season One, at its best, shows a lot of potential for Enterprise. Right now, only occasional episodes live up to that potential, but it scrapes it often enough for me to rate this as a pretty good first season overall. Certainly, it compares quite favorably to the first season of Next Generation.  Showing potential is really all it needed to do in Year One. It's had its shakedown year, to figure out what worked and what didn't (*cough* Mayweather *cough*). Now it needs to raise the bar and start realizing that potential on a more consistent basis.


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1-11. Cold Front

THE PLOT

The Enterprise encounters an alien ship carrying a group of pilgrims. They are traveling to a stellar nursery, in order to view The Great Plume of Agosoria, which they associate with the beginning of the universe. Archer invites them aboard, granting them a tour, as they all wait for the Plume. The tour takes an unexpected turn when a plasma storm nearly destroys the Enterprise. Only the disconnection of a conduit before the storm saves the ship... a disconnection that was not performed by any member of the engineering crew.

The mystery deepens when Archer is told by Crewman Daniels (Matt Winston), that the crewman is actually an agent from the distant future, here to stop the Suliban from changing history during the Temporal Cold War. The Suliban, Silik (John Fleck), whom Archer had encountered back in the Pilot, has infiltrated the pilgrims. Daniels enlists Archer's aid to find Silik - but Silik may be one step ahead of both of them...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: Silik raises a very good point, in his confrontations with Archer in this episode. Archer rushes to trust Daniels, with very little evidence to indicate that he should. Is it simply that Daniels appears human, and Silik appears... Well, sort of scaly and creepy and lizard-like? Archer shouldn't trust either of these characters as far as he can throw them, and yet he almost instantly takes Daniels' side. This, along with his issues with the Vulcans, may point to a buried streak of xenophobia in the captain (which, as with his other flaws, would be interesting to see genuinely explored).

It is interesting that he recalls that on their first meeting, Silik tried to kill him. That's actually only partially true. Silik was initially completely disinterested in Archer. He only tried to kill the captain when Archer made it clear that he knew more than he should. Archer was there; he should remember that at least as well as I do. Archer's selective memory here is interesting. Also, and I know I've said it before, but his impulsiveness and his insistence on trusting people he has no particular reason to trust... This *needs* to blow up in his face, and soon.

T'Pol: Her skepticism about Daniels' time travel claim is refreshing, and raises a good point. Daniels showed Archer a fancy light show with technology far in advance of humanity's. On the other hand, as T'Pol and Trip point out, they've already seen plenty of technology far in advance of humanity's. Nothing they've seen proves that Daniels is from the future - a point both Trip and T'Pol seem to agree on (and which Archer, in typical fashion, ignores).

Trip: In addition to actually agreeing with T'Pol's caution on this occasion, Trip gets an amusing moment during the tour. His assumption that these pilgrims must be simple folk, and that the Enterprise's engineering system must be beyond their understanding, gets turned on its head when it turns out that several of the pilgrims know as much - probably more - about warp systems than he does. Yet another reminder that the technology that still impresses the humans is old hat to many of the aliens they encounter.

Villain of the Week: Silik the Suliban returns, and he's still creepy. I enjoyed his attempts to reason with Archer. He does have a point: We do not, at this point, actually know that Silik represents "the wrong side." We're led to assume this, because of the events of the Pilot. But it's entirely possible that Daniels represents the "wrong side," and that Silik - while certainly motivated by self interest - may actually be the lesser of two evils. Even Archer acknowledges that they know nothing about Daniels, even at the end. And when Archer prevents Silik from ultimately completing the last bit of his mission, Silik's last words to him are to hiss that Archer may have imperiled his own future. Why should Silik bother? Why not just get out of there? Maybe Silik is telling the truth... or at least, believes that he is.


THOUGHTS

For the second disc in a row, we have a mediocre episode and a downright bad episode followed by a very strong installment that promises even more interesting things to come.

I'm feeling more convinced than ever that this show would have benefitted from shorter seasons, to cut out the filler. Can you imagine the first part of this season running something like this?

Broken Bow
Fight or Flight
Strange New World
Breaking the Ice
The Andorian Incident
Cold Front

That would be probably the strongest and most interesting start of any Trek spinoff, ever. Unfortunately, pointless filler episodes keep intruding to gum up the works. Instead of 26 episode seasons, 13 to 16 episode seasons would have served this show far better.

Ah, well. At least this was a good one. The Temporal Cold War comes up for the first time since Broken Bow. There, it was fancy window dressing for an otherwise fairly typical Trek plot. Here, it is the plot. Archer is given one bit of information, then another bit of entirely conflicting information, and ends the episode knowing possibly even less than when he started. He does know now that cold warriors from the future have an unhealthy interest in Enterprise... or does he?

I keep coming back to the doubts expressed by T'Pol and Trip. They raise a good point. All the proof Archer (or we) have of a Temporal Cold War stems from two different guys claiming to be from the future and one of them showing Archer a light show. What if there is no Temporal Cold War? Silik's superior could easily be from a more advanced current race, using technology and genetic upgrades to lie to the Suliban for reasons of his own. Similarly, Daniels - aware that Archer has encountered Silik, and guessing that Archer has been told of the "Temporal Cold War" - could be simply telling Archer a convenient lie to enlist his aid. Just because two different people on opposite sides have told Archer the same thing, that doesn't make the thing they told him true.

The episode is directed with quite a bit of visual flair. Silik makes his escape from the Enterprise in a moment that looks like it belongs on the big screen, not the small. The light show Daniels shows Archer is impressive... as is the The Great Plume, for that matter. Finally, I loved the final shot of the episode, leaving us with the image of the seal on Daniels' locked quarters. The open ending has left us with more questions than answers, and a sense of ominous things to come - which, at this point in an arc, is exactly as it should be.


Rating: 8/10. Good stuff.

Previous Episode: Fortunate Son
Next Episode: Silent Enemy

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1-9. Civilization

THE PLOT

Enterprise locates an inhabited, Earth-like planet with a medieval culture. Despite T'Pol's warnings about cultural contamination, Archer insists on a small landing party, dressed like natives so as to blend in. However, when the ship's sensors detect emissions that can only be caused by advanced technology... technology that the planet's culture does not appear to reflect.

Archer beams down with Trip, T'Pol, and Hoshi. They quickly identify the source of the emissions - an antique shop, whose owner is actually an alien running an antimatter reactor. The shop owner readily admits to the existence of the reactor, but insists that it is harmless. The local apothecary, however, has other views, blaming the shop owner and his mysterious "midnight deliveries" for a sickness that has started claiming lives, including the life of her brother.


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: As the episode opened, with Archer once again blithely ignoring T'Pol (for the Enterprise drinking game: T'Pol says something sensible and Archer ignores her... *drink*), I had hopes that this episode would see Archer and his good intentions creating a major calamity. The number of times we've seen Archer's headstrong, impulsive nature is begging for an episode in which he makes a mammoth misjudgement. I would go so far as to say that my opinion of this series will plummet if we don't get that episode eventually.

I say "eventually," because sadly, this is not that episode. Impulsive, headstrong, and ready to impose his morals on others at the drop of a hat, Archer is also... proved right at every significant turn. Fortunately, Scott Bakula does get a chance to show his skills with low-key humor in his Kirk-like romance with the local apothecary, and also does a fair job with the action heroics. Archer is still likable despite himself - which, at this point, I'm putting down at least as much to the actor as to the role.

T'Pol: Voices concerns about "cultural contamination" that will be echoed by the Prime Directive by the time of TOS. Continues to show disapproval at Archer's impulsiveness. Particularly disapproves of Archer's closeness with Riann (Diane DiLascio), the pretty apothecary. At this point, I am starting to wonder why T'Pol didn't grab at the chance to leave Enterprise in the previous episode. More than half the episodes see her talking sense, and either being ignored or having to argue far too heavily for the rest of the crew to pay her any mind. If I were in her shoes, I would frankly have quit by now and gone home to confirm that humans are indeed impulsive, arrogant, and stubborn.

Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: Archer gets his Kirk on with Riann, the pretty and brilliant apothecary. Diane DiLascio is highly appealing as Riann, and plays well opposite Bakula. This is fortunate, since the role as written could easily be insufferable. We get scenes in which Dr. Phlox takes care to point out Riann's brilliance and how far ahead of her civilization her work is. She even gets to save Archer at the climax. If this were a fanfic, she'd be a clear "Mary Sue."

Villain of the Week: Is it really much of a spoiler to reveal that Garos (Wade Andrew Williams), the shop owner, actually is evil? I mean, it's not like either the actor or the very predictable story structure are exactly going to great pains to hide it. Garos is a typical Trek villain. He's smug, arrogant, and dismissive of all lives that aren't his own. If this were a TOS episode, Kirk would have to be kept ill or unconscious for half the episode's length to avoid simply slapping Garos into submission in the first 15 minutes. As such, it's near-impossible to feel any remote interest in him as a character.

THOUGHTS

Well, if Terra Nova was a Next Generation episode in all but name, then Civilization is a TOS episode, with Archer very clearly cast in the Kirk role. I quite like TOS, so I enjoyed this episode considerably more than I did Terra Nova. As with that episode, though, I find myself wishing Enterprise would stick to telling stories that are specific to itself. The Andorian Incident and Breaking the Ice show that the writers can do this. So my wish is for an end to knock-offs of other Trek shows' formulas, and more episodes that exploit this show's particular format and potential.

Quibbles about the now-quite-tiresome "Archer-ignores-T'Pol's-advice" plot device and lack of originality aside, this is entertaining enough. Bakula seems to be having fun playing a standard hero role, and the pace moves along at a nice clip. There's a refreshing undercurrent of humor, which seems to indicate that the writers knew they were doing a knockoff and were signalling the audience not to take it too seriously. Still, if the writers could keep the pace fast, keep the tone engaging, and even wink at the audience that they knew this wasn't one to take seriously, then surely those same writers had enough ability to put out a more substantial piece of television than this?

Joss Whedon, in the Firefly DVD's, noted that their show being in trouble brought out the best in Firefly's creative team. They asked themselves, with each episode, "What story needs to be told in this universe?" If only the Enterprise staff had asked themselves the same question a bit more often during their first season, and avoided featherweight filler episodes like Terra Nova and this, then the show might well have met with a stronger overall reception.


Rating: 5/10. Entertaining enough, but ordinary. And honestly a bit frustrating in its predicability.

Previous Episode: Breaking the Ice
Next Episode: Fortunate Son

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1-8. Breaking the Ice

PLOT

The Enterprise discovers an enormous comet, the largest one ever observed by either humans or Vulcans, and one that contains a rare substance beneath its surface. Reed and Mayweather are dispatched to collect samples from beneath the ice on the comet's surface, an operation that will take some time to complete.

Meanwhile, a Vulcan ship appears - creating irritation on Archer's part that the Vulcans are apparently following Enterprise. Irritation becomes suspicion when he learns that T'Pol has received an encrypted message from the Vulcans, prompting Trip to intercept and translate the message. The contents are not what Trip had expected.

Back on the comet, Reed sets off a blast in order to collect the requested samples. But when the blast changes the comet's trajectory, the ice begins to melt - a bit too fast to give Reed and Mayweather any reasonable margin of safety!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: His suspicion and resentment of the Vulcans continues to loom large, here interfering with his judgment to such an extent as to endanger two members of his crew. He does make some overtures to the captain of the Vulcan vessel to try to achieve some common ground. When these efforts are (genuinely quite rudely) rebuffed, Archer reacts... badly. Also, despite the many times that T'Pol has proved her value and her loyalty, Archer still seems unable to bring himself to fully trust her.

T'Pol: We find out substantially more about her background in this episode, and get hints that her decision to stay with Enterprise after the end of her initial assignment is anything but well looked-upon back home. The captain of the Vulcan ship speaks even more harshly to her than he does to Archer, and there is a sense that her career path may be making her an outcast with her own people. Meanwhile, she reacts surprisingly well to Trip's intrusion. Perhaps on some level, she welcomes having another crew member realize some of the issues she is facing. In any event, despite some friction around the midpoint of the episode, she obviously takes to heart some of the things Trip says to her. The ending indicates a growing bond between these two characters, which could make for some potentially interesting future developments.

Mayweather: Actually gets some vague characterization this time! Mayweather's enthusiasm when he is out on the comet, in the ice, is infectious, and I enjoyed watching him and Reed take a break from their work in order to build a (Vulcan) snowman. I wouldn't say any breakthrough character work is done... but this is the first episode in which Mayweather actually feels like a character, which deserves mention.


THOUGHTS

Was this episode originally intended to come before The Andorian Incident? It does seem like it should be earlier in the line-up. The crew interactions, particularly with T'Pol, are at a far more basic level than they were in the previous episode. Also, as a character-heavy and incident-light episode, this may have been better-placed a few episodes earlier. The "message to the class" bit, for instance, seems like something that would be done very early in a mission - and if this had been moved up to, say, Episode Four, the Trip/T'Pol subplot here might actually provide some motivation for T'Pol's out-of-character snottiness toward him in Unexpected. On the whole, this feels out of place where it falls.

Most of all, of course, is the difficulty in believing that right after the events of The Andorian Incident, this incident wouldn't be directly mentioned by someone when they encounter the Vulcan ship.

Placement issues aside, this is a rather good character-building episode. No, not much happens, and the crisis at the end is clearly manufactured by the writers to create a little tension and to give Archer a brief internal conflict between common sense and prejudice. But several character relationships build. Archer has to acknowledge that there are some situations he isn't equipped to handle, and that occasionally it might behoove him to swallow his pride and ask for help. T'Pol and Trip take some stumbling steps toward some kind of friendship/potentially something more. Reed gets to set off an explosion, and he and Mayweather get to generally have fun faffing about on the comet - at least until the final act crisis arrives.

It's all quite low-key, but still surprisingly engrossing. Special mention the visual effects surrounding the comet, which are very nicely-realized.


Rating: 7/10. Not an "exciting" episode, perhaps, but a rather well-played one just the same.

Previous Episode: The Andorian Incident
Next Episode: Civilization

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1-7. The Andorian Incident

THE PLOT

Archer decides to visit P'Jem, home to a Vulcan temple devoted the practice of Kolinahr, the ritual purging of emotion. Archer, T'Pol, and Trip take a shuttle down to the planet's surface. However, no sooner have they arrived, than they discover that the temple has been taken over by Andorians, whose paranoia has them convinced that the Vulcans are hiding a sensor array on the site. The Andorians have searched the temple multiple times before - always leaving within a day when they find nothing. The arrival of the Enterprise, however, has the Andorians convinced that there is something of value here. As one Vulcan monk sourly tells Archer, "Your arrival has endangered us all."

Now Archer, Trip, and T'Pol must figure out a way to contact Enterprise and defuse the situation, before the Andorian leader, Commander Shran (Jeffrey Combs), decides to start killing the monks, one by one!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: Despite his deep-seated distrust of Vulcans, he still feels outrage that the monks let the Andorians regularly trash their monastery with no real protest. He acknowledges the desirability of a peaceful solution to their dilemma. However, when it becomes clear that Shran's paranoia is becoming violent, he pragmatically accepts the reality that a peaceful solution probably isn't going to happen, and helps coordinate a rescue. Scott Bakula has a strong episode, and is particularly effective at conveying anger.

T'Pol: She is still clearly uncomfortable with her assignment on a human ship, and far from thrilled at the prospect of introducing other Vulcans to her human crew. However, she is quick to notice that things are amiss at the temple, and trusts Archer and Trip sufficiently to allow them to intervene. Despite her discomfort with Archer, she affirms her loyalty to him, which she proves with her actions at the episode's end. She finds human body odor offensive, and uses a numbing agent to control her sensitivity to the smell in order to make her assignment on Enterprise tolerable. Jolene Blalock, while still far from my favorite performer, shows tremendous improvement from the first couple of episodes here, and is quite adequate. If her improvement continues, I may rethink my regret at her casting.

Reed: Despite less screen time than Trip, his character actually ends up having a stronger episode. When the Away Team is out of contact for a bit too long, he makes several on-target observations about safety precautions that should be standard protocol. He's right about every one of them. When the Andorians attempt to intimidate Reed, he snaps that he doesn't follow orders from a voice on a communicator, "unless that voice is the captain's." And of course, Reed finally gets to do his favorite thing here: He gets to blow stuff up and shoot at people! All told, a pretty good day for the ship's tactical officer.

Villain of the Week: Jeffrey Combs is typically strong as Commander Shran. He doesn't get much chance to show his ability with humor here, but he plays Shran's paranoia and outrage to the hilt. One senses immediately the capacity for violence in this character, which reinforces the sense of an incident spinning out of control. His henchmen are also a fairly scary lot, particularly the one who spends most of his time leering at T'Pol, making thinly-veiled rape threats almost from the outset.


THOUGHTS

Finally, a genuinely good episode! Not a promising one, not one that entertains despite missed opportunities, not one that offers hope for the future... but a truly good, well-written, nicely-structured piece! After Terra Nova (and, to a lesser extent, Unexpected), the series desperately needed to deliver something to re-establish my waning interest. This did the job quite nicely.

All the regulars are on good form. Admittedly, Mayweather and Hoshi still get nothing to do, but I suppose one can't ask for miracles. Bakula, Blalock, and Dominic Keating (Reed) all give their strongest performances to date. The situation feels genuinely dangerous, a sense that is heightened when Archer receives two separate, and rather severe, beatings from the Andorians.

The ending is particularly strong. I will avoid spoilers, save to note that I will be severely disappointed if there is no follow-up to Archer's actions in future episodes.


Rating: 8/10. By far the best episode of Enterprise to date.

Previous Episode: Terra Nova
Next Episode: Breaking the Ice

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1-06. Terra Nova

Well, so much for hoping the next one would be better.


THE PLOT

The Enterprise's voyage brings it to Terra Nova. No, not the high-stakes test used in some U. S. middle schools, but rather the first Earth colony set up outside the Earth's solar system, in the time before warp technology. The colony fell out of contact with Earth about two generations earlier, and its fate has remained a mystery ever since.

What the Enterprise crew discover is a planet whose atmosphere is permeated with low-level radiation: harmless in the short term, but lethal given any long-term exposure. They do discover the descendants of the original colonists, however, alive and living in a network of caves near the original colony. The Terra Novans are hostile and suspicious, however, their fractured knowledge of their ancestors just enough to believe that "humans" (they don't realize that they, themselves, are human) destroyed the colony and drove them underground.

Now Archer must make the colony's leaders understand their shared heritage - a task given great urgency when Reed is injured and held captive within the caves, and even more urgency when Dr. Phlox discovers that the ground water in the caves has become contaminated, and that the Terra Novans will die within a few years if they aren't moved soon!


CHARACTERS

This plays out like a recycled Next Generation or Voyager script. Archer is entirely interchangeable with Picard or Janeway here. T'Pol might as well be Tuvok or Data; Reed might as well be Riker; Mayweather might as well be wallpaper. As such, I'm not going to waste my time talking about the characters this time out. There aren't any character revelations, or even any interesting character beats.


THOUGHTS

Oh, dear. When I asked, in my review of Strange New World, when this show was going to start sucking, I meant it rhetorically. I certainly wasn't prompting the next disc to loudly answer, "RIGHT NOW!!!"

This was even worse than Unexpected. Much worse, in fact. This is the first Enterprise episode that feels like a stale retread of the kind of episodes that made Next Generation "filler" episodes and Voyager often painful. The heroic captain must talk uncooperative natives around to learning the error of their ways, saving these simple folk from themselves. Of course, he gets to display a bit of heroism at a critical point, thus winning the natives' trust and saving the day for everyone. Yippee!

Zzzz...

Honestly, I'd rather Archer had taken T'Pol's suggestion and transplanted the Terra Novans by force. That would have been consistent with Archer's character flaws, and possibly would have created consequences that would have pointed the way toward the need for the establishment of the Prime Directive. It might have taken this tired concept and done something interesting with it, by showing the crew doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. Most of all, it would have had the potential of turning this into an episode of Enterprise. If I want to watch a "Picard (or Janeway) Displays Superior Morality (Again)" filler episode, I could easily rent episodes of those series. Enterprise sold itself on the promise of being a very different Trek. This episode is the same old stuff, only staler.

Too many more like this might well stop my Enterprise voyage short. That said, I do hold out some hope for The Andorian Incident - but I think I'll take refuge in the cheesy, safely entertaining confines of TOS before I attempt it. This was just... really, really, really bad.


Rating: 2/10. "Let That Be Your Last Next Generation Episode."

Previous Episode: Unexpected
Next Episode: The Andorian Incident

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1-05. Unexpected

Mork gets pregnant and lays a giant egg... Oops, sorry. Wrong show.


THE PLOT

The Enterprise encounters a cloaked alien ship, using its warp stream to fuel its damaged engines. After establishing communications, the aliens agree to allow Trip aboard their ship to help with repairs to their warp engines, so that they can return home. Trip has some trouble adjusting to a decidedly alien environment. However, he settles in eventually, with support from Ah'len, a rather interesting female member of the aliens' crew.

When Trip returns to Enterprise, he discovers that he gained more from this first contact than he'd bargained for... namely, he's pregnant! This is the subject of much teasing by Archer, T'Pol, and Dr. Phlox. Tracking down the alien ship to see what can be done about this becomes a priority for Trip, and they do eventually find the ship... Cloaked, and lurking in the warp stream of a Klingon battle cruiser!


CHARACTERS

Archer: Continues to display a naive enthusiasm, which finally comes close to getting him into trouble when he blunders into communications with the Klingons. How did he think a race of warriors was going to react to the news that a cloaked ship was lurking in its warp stream, creating malfunctions? Did he think the Klingons were going to invite the aliens aboard as honored guests? Only T'Pol's quick thinking, and the Klingons' own debt to Archer, prevents this encounter from becoming very messy. Even so, Archer has wasted a favor from the Klingon Empire. He needs to learn to think before barging into situations. But I hope he learns that lesson the hard way, by creating a very bad situation... rather than being, once again, bailed out of a situation before it turns really bad.

Trip: For all his enthusiasm about exploration, he reacts very badly to an entirely alien environment. Like Archer, he is very trusting of his alien hosts, never pausing to wonder if all these quasi-sexual "games" he is playing with Ah'len could possibly be anything more than what they seem. He remains a highly competent engineer, and a basically decent human being. Despite the "misunderstanding," he has no desire for revenge and brings no recriminations - he just wants his situation cured.

T'Pol: Seems out-of-character in her reaction to Trip's dilemma. Surely, as the most well-travelled member of the crew (save possibly for Dr. Phlox), it would occur to her that there might be alternate explanations for Trip's situation. Nevertheless, she is very fast to lay blame on Trip, and solely on Trip - honestly behaving less like a professional Science Officer, and more like a jealous girlfriend. That said, she appears to be the only member of the crew with an active brain this episode, stepping up to save Archer from a situation of his own making when things with the Klingons look ready to turn very, very ugly.

Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: I'll say this for Trip - Scales or no scales, Ah'len really is quite appealing. She comes across as patient, charming, funny. And the makeup job is very good, sufficiently alien to convince that she is another species, but also sensual enough that Trip's attraction to her is believable.


THOUGHTS

Teasing? A valued member of the ship's crew comes back from a first contact situation pregnant - a medical first. The ship's doctor knows little or nothing about how the pregnancy might proceed (is there one young, or several? Are they surgically removed, or do they eat their way out? Are there any risks involved for Trip? Are there any risks to the crew?). The reaction of the ship's captain, doctor, and science officer is near-identical: teasing and mocking of Trip.

*thunks head on desk*

As truly dreadful as this episode sounds, it actually plays slightly better. The first (pre-pregnancy) half is actually quite good. The presentation of the alien ship is effective, particularly the steps taken to allow Trip to acclimatize to their environment. Trip has a realistic reaction to such an alien environment: He freaks out. He can't deal with it, not mentally or physically, and nearly bails on the mission before it's even properly begun. Trip's initial sense of disorientation is nicely conveyed with distorted camera lenses, as is his gradual easing into the situation.

Even when things turn stupid at the midpoint, the episode has one thing going for it: it moves. We don't labor on Trip's "condition" for long, before the Enterprise is facing a potential conflict with the Klingons - a conflict in which it is, once again, clear that Enterprise is far the weaker ship. Archer's attempts to talk down the Klingon captain play as pathetically to us as they do the Klingons. He does sound, just a bit, like a babbling fool, and the thought occurs again that while Archer is an essentially competent man, he is a man who is in far over his head, and one who desperately needs to learn the art of thinking before he speaks.

The fast pace, the effective presentation of the aliens, and the consistency of Archer's failings in new encounters (which, at this point, seem too consistently-presented to be accidental), combine to keep this episode quite watchable. It is still, however, the weakest Enterprise episode yet. "Man gets pregnant" is the kind of desperate high concept ploy sci-fi shows grab for in their fourth or fifth season, when out of ideas. It is not encouraging to see it trotted out as the fourth episode of a new series.


Rating: 5/10. With strong hopes that the next one is better.

Previous Episode: Strange New World
Next Episode: Terra Nova

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1-04. Strange New World

THE PLOT

Archer and crew are delighted to discover a genuine, Earth-like planet, with an oxygen atmosphere, vegetation, and all. T'Pol advises caution; Archer completely disregards her (why do I have a feeling this is something I'll be typing over and over again in these plot descriptions?), insisting on an immediate landing party.

Archer is content to stretch his legs for a bit before going back to the ship. T'Pol, however, wishes to stay to complete her scientific scans of the planet. Trip and Mayweather (formerly known as Token Black Guy) stay as well, along with two guest characters whose names already escape me.

When a storm kicks up, this little vacation turns serious, however. They take refuge from the storm in a cave. But Mayweather insists he has seen alien life, despite scans from the ship reporting nothing. When Male Guest Character freaks out and runs into the storm, Trip pursues - only to see aliens coming out of the rock itself! When Trip returns to the cave, he learns that Female Guest Character saw T'Pol talking with these aliens... sparking Trip's distrust of Vulcans, and putting the landing party at odds with itself!


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: There's little new development here. He's still headstrong, and - along with the crew - possibly getting a bit stir-crazy inside the cramped ship. His friendship with Trip is elaborated on, as he talks an increasingly irrational Trip down from a murderous rage by drawing on Trip's trust in him. He also demonstrates resourcefulness and quick thinking at the climax of the episode.

Trip: Broken Bow harped on Archer's distrust of Vulcans, but generally portrayed Trip as more laid-back. This episode shows that Trip is at least as suspicious of their Vulcan "allies" as his captain is, and indicates that Trip may have some violent tendencies under his easygoing surface.

T'Pol: As the situation in the cave becomes heated, it is revealed that the resentment cuts both ways. T'Pol still feels very much separate from the crew, and deep-down believes that the humans are little more than savages, unfit to be explorers. She does put some trust in Archer at the finale, though, and maintains more rationality than the human members of the landing crew manage to do. Jolene Blalock's performance still isn't impressing me, but it seems to be improving - which, given the prominence of her role, is a very good thing.

The Enterprise Crew: Mayweather gets a scene! He still doesn't have a character, but at least he gets one good scene, telling a ghost story by a fire. The actor does a good job with this short bit, and my conclusion is that the actor is good enough to carry a role. Now if only the writers would actually create one for him. Dr. Phlox's medical skills are further expanded on, when he manages to save a crewmember after a transporter accident (exactly how is left very vague; apparently, in the original draft script, he was unable to save the crewman, and that probably should have been the case in the final episode). Hoshi and Reed are present in the background, but get less character development than Archer's beagle in this ep. Oh, and though I haven't particularly commented on him yet, I quite like Porthos, and it enhances Archer's quirky side that he actually brought his dog with him into outer space.


THOUGHTS

Finishing Disc One. Though this episode, like its predecessors, has its flaws and missed opportunities, I'm starting to wonder exactly when this program is going to start sucking. Because so far, it doesn't. Sure, there's a much more interesting show fighting to get out from underneath the generic writing. But three episodes in, all three episodes have been reasonably engaging. For a so-called "franchise killer," the program's not only not bad - I'd so far rate it somewhere between "fair" and "pretty good" on my personal scale.

In the first two episodes, we saw how reluctant the crew was to use the transporter. In this episode, we see why. When an emergency forces them to use the transporter to retrieve Expendable Male Guest Character, we see that these primitive transporters are a lot less reliable than the ones employed by Kirk & co, as the crew member ends up with bits of the world's plantlife mixed in with his skin. Uch! We're told Dr. Phlox manages to save him... but I'm guessing some extensive surgery was involved, and that the crew member's not going to be up to full strength anytime soon. No wonder this Enterprise crew is so insistent on using shuttlecraft.

I think I enjoyed the first half of the episode, with the crew relaxing and getting giddily enthusiastic over exploring a not-very-strange new world, more than the second half. The "crisis" in this episode seemed forced and manufactured. I also felt that there was a missed opportunity there. The pilot established Archer's intrinsic distrust of the Vulcans. How much more interesting might this scenario have been if Trip had gone back to the ship at the end of the day, and Archer had stayed? Then the climax would have had Archer waving a gun in T'Pol's face, and Trip talking down a man who was not only his friend, but actually his superior officer. The potential for drama would have been much enhanced, even if it did take the series' lead away from the "heroic" position. To me, that one switch - Trip on the ship, Archer in the cave - would have made the episode considerably more interesting.

Still, it's an engaging piece. The actor playing Trip obviously has fun getting to go over-the-top in the angry cave scenes. I may even revise my comment above if Trip's potential for violence ever comes up again.


Rating: 6/10

Previous Episode: Fight or Flight
Next Episode: Unexpected

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1-03. Fight or Flight.

THE PLOT

The Enterprise has been voyaging for long enough that the crew has started to become ever-so-slightly bored and stir crazy.  The only new life they have discovered since the Klingon mission is a single slug, whose deteriorating health has Hoshi worried. Reed (previously referred to as British guy) is continuing to try to get the ship's weapons systems properly operational, which results in a moment of excitement when a weapons test nearly results in the Enterprise being hit by its own torpedo. As for the captain?  Well, Archer is putting most of his mental energies into trying to track down a squeak in his cabin.

So it is welcome news when they detect an alien vessel, apparently damaged but with vague life signs aboard. When no response is made to their hails, Archer decides to lead a party onto the ship. What they discover is a ghastly sight: the ship's crew have been murdered, the bodies hanging upside-down from the ceiling as fluid is drained from the corpses. When it is pointed out that the attackers will doubtless return, Archer is sufficiently shaken to take T'Pol's advice for once and flee.

It is a decision he regrets almost immediately. When a dinner conversation reminds him that he has "a code of conduct," he insists on turning the ship around and going back, in order to put the dead to rest and send some sort of message to the aliens' homeworld to let them know what happened. Unfortunately for Enterprise, they arrive just in time to be there when the attackers return. Attackers clearly far more technologically advanced than they are...


CHARACTERS

Captain Archer: Continues to be headstrong in resisting sound advice in favor of his own morals. This time, it nearly gets the Enterprise destroyed and his crew turned into meat "in the larder." Only luck saves the ship from utter disaster. Hate to say it, but T'Pol's advice is sound; with a weapons system that isn't quite working, faced with a clearly technologically superior foe, they truly should flee. I continue to want to see an episode where Archer's stubbornness gets him into trouble that he actually has to get himself out of. Even two episodes in, the characterization thus far established seems to beg for such a situation.

T'Pol: Neither better nor worse than in the pilot. The actress is overly arch in her interactions with Archer and Trip and has, thus far, virtually no interaction with anyone else. At least she provides advice that actually seems reasonable this time... which of course means that Archer ignores her.

Hoshi: This is her character-development episode. Unfortunately, her character development continues to be "whiny." To the episode's credit, not everyone is a sympathetic shoulder for Hoshi in her dilemma. Dr. Phlox is outright cold, all but saying that he doesn't think she's suited to space travel and should return to teaching on Earth. Naturally, her ear for languages saves the day at the end. After all, it's her character-development episode. I'd like to see something more to this character, a note other than "whiny" or "unrealistically good at absorbing new languages." Given that she's at the center of this episode, it is unfortunate that she continues to be the second-weakest character.

The Enterprise Crew: Token Black Guy, whose character name I still haven't absorbed, continues to be the weakest character, through no fault of the actor's. The writers just haven't given him any character beats beyond "born in space." Two episodes in, that's still forgiveable in a show with a large cast. Reed, at least, begins to show promise. I enjoyed his disappointment at not getting to use explosives to blow open the airlock. Trip recedes into the background, though his interplay with Archer remains enjoyable. I also appreciated his frustration at not being allowed to go on the initial away mission. The cast is (mostly) starting to gel, which is promising.


THOUGHTS

A reasonably strong second episode. I like that the vastness of space is actually something of an issue. It may not have pleased casual viewers to spend the first act of the show watching characters frustrated at being stuck in a tin can. But it conveyed what was absent in the pilot: that it should take a long time to get anywhere, time the crew will desperately need to fill. Obviously, later episodes won't be able to get away with lingering on such issues - but I hope this sort of thing gets a nod for a while, at least. These people are taking baby-steps into a larger universe. They shouldn't be encountering a new crisis every 10 minutes.

I also like how comparatively weak Enterprise is when the three different races converge at the climax. The ship's weapons systems are obviously far more primitive than either of the other races', making them effectively the weakling caught between two giants. This is also as it should be. I hope it takes a while for them to advance their weaponry too far, simply because being unable to just "fire phasers" to sort out the enemy forces both characters and writers to find other solutions. In this case, communication becomes a priority - even if the short running time forces an unrealistically quick translation to save the day.

Overall, while not perfect (for a character-spotlight episode, it does virtually nothing to advance the character being spotlighted), this is a fairly good episode.  I'm starting to feel some hope that Enterprise may defy expectations and turn out to be a decent series after all.


Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Broken Bow
Next Episode: Strange New World

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1-01, 1-02. Broken Bow

Capt. Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) meets the "Kling-ots," while his science officer and engineer take a shower together.


PLOT

When a Klingon crash-lands in a field, it falls to a farmer to make first contact with a new alien race. Which he does... using a shotgun. This incident coincides with the planned launch of the flagship of the recently-formed Starfleet: the Enterprise. The Vulcans, who have spent the last 100 years "advising" humanity (or, possibly, holding humanity back), urge delaying the Enterprise's maiden flight until after they have returned the Kllingon. However, the Enterprise's captain, Johnathan Archer (Scott Bakula), is having none of that, and convinces his superiors that since this happened on Earth, it should be the Enterprise that takes the Klingon home.

The Vulcans reluctantly agree, with the proviso that one of their own is assigned as science officer (Jolene Blalock). And with that, the Enterprise is off on its first-ever mission. A mission which is complicated when the ship is invaded by a race known as the Suliban, who take the Klingon and vanish. Now Archer must follow a scant few, very thin leads in order to track down the Klingon and complete his mission - or return home, defeated, proving the Vulcans right in their belief that man just isn't ready for the stars.


CHARACTERS

Capt. Archer: A reasonably interesting start, at least, for this character. Scott Bakula isn't nearly as good here as he was in Quantum Leap, at least not yet. He remains an engaging presence, however. His Archer is easy enough to like, even as he shows some potentially unlikable qualities: notably, he's quite headstrong (once the Klingon is taken, he really should at least contact his superiors), and he has an only very thinly-veiled strain of bigotry, at least as it concerns the Vulcans. On the other hand, Archer is reasonably resourceful. And the end of the episode does see him grappling with his preconceptions about his Vulcan science officer, even if it's clear he's still uncomfortable with her presence.

Collagen Spock: Jolene Blalock was clearly cast for two reasons, neither of which had anything to do with acting ability. I confess to being predisposed against her, making it little surprise that I found her the weak link in the cast here. The pity of it is that T'Pol seems to have some potential as a character. There is room to play with her conflicting motives: Is she working for the Vulcans (whose motives appear a bit murkier here than in other Trek series), or is she committed to her new ship, even if she isn't particularly happy about the assignment? Sadly, the answer to that question appears to be evident simply from her staying for all four seasons. Meanwhile, Blalock does nothing here to overcome my preconceptions, though I'll acknowledge that she isn't painfully bad in this pilot either.

"Trip": If the ship's engineer is nicknamed "Trip," does that really inspire confidence? How about "Doctor Whoops?" Unfortunate nickname aside, Trip makes a mostly positive first impression, the actor making the most of a handful of character beats. Admittedly, as of this moment, Trip's character seems to amount to: supporting the captain, making wisecracks, and speaking in a Southern drawl. But the actor seems game, and the character has potential to be a scene-stealer.

The Enterprise Crew: The regulars are passably well-established for a pilot, even if most of the rest of the cast doesn't get much to do here. After a promising opening scene, Hoshi the Translator (Linda Park) is mostly reduced to standing in the background and whining. The British guy... is British, and this episode seems uninterested in giving him any other character beats. The token black guy was born in space, likes to sit upside down (top that one, Shaolin masters!), and thus far has no other character. As of this point, I would have to look up the show on IMDB to tell you either character's name.

Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley) shows some promise. The actor has a potentially creepy undercurrent to him, which could be fun to play with - though I have a sinking feeling that the show will end up just going the "comedy relief" route with him. None of the actors makes me cringe during line deliveries, though I reserve the right to hate one or more of them by the end of the season.


THOUGHTS

For all the many bad things I have read about Enterprise, Broken Bow is surprisingly a pretty good pilot. The regulars are all at least introduced, we get a functional sense of the characters of three or four of those regulars, and we get to see a passable amount of interaction among them. At the same time, the episode presents a fairly interesting story, while hinting at both backstory affecting the various races and characters and foreshadowing conflicts to come. There is plenty to build on here, and every reason to believe that this pilot should lead to a good program. Well, every reason except the rather poor status the program actually enjoys within Trek fandom.  I will attempt to approach it with an open mind.

There are certainly things I would like to see built upon. In only his second scene, we see Archer commenting on how emotional the Vulcans are reacting, the humans seeing the Vulcans as untrustworthy throughout. I would enjoy seeing this developed further. What if the humans aren't simply being provincial, and these Vulcans actually are hiding something? Alternately, what if the Vulcans' motives actually are for the best, but the humans end up being genuinely dangerous. Certainly, Archer's insistence on plunging into situations head-first seems likely to backfire on him at some point. What if Archer ends up creating an incident, maybe even starting the Klingon war referred to so often in TOS? I'm not optimistic about the series actually going such places - but the potential is there.

The Suliban seem poised to be major recurring baddies for this show, and do make a reasonably sinister presence here. CGI enhances them in nicely creepy ways, such as the Suliban who slides under the door to the grain silo, or the Suliban creeping along the ceiling in the darkened Enterprise sickbay during the attack. The "Temporal Cold War" alluded to here has potential to be interesting, though there's equal potential for it to be used as a lazy plot-reset device.

Really, "potential" seems to be the key word here. It seems obvious that Enterprise is being devised as a more arc-driven show than previous Trek series, with much of Broken Bow at least as concerned with setting plot threads in motion as with the episode's own plot. Most of the elements in evidence here could be really good. But it all depends on the execution... and though I am trying to approach the series with an open mind, and enjoyed this initial installment at least, it's difficult to optimistic about a show that is still widely held to have been a "franchise killer."

Scattered things I liked: I love the design of this first Enterprise. Very cramped, very submarine-like, it does a good job of suggesting technology more primitive than the original series Enterprise, while at the same time looking... well, looking good enough for 2001 audiences to have been able to take it seriously. I like the sense that the humans are a bit out-of-their-depth. I like the need for a human with strong language skills, and that communication with the Klingons is anything but simple.

Scattered problems: Blalock's flat performance. Does it improve? The decontamination scene... I approve of the women's uniforms on TOS, on the grounds that a little pandering isn't necessarily a bad thing. On the other hand, blatant, in-your-face pandering is a bad thing, and the "peekaboo" tone of the decontamination scene makes it feel like one of the "boring parts" of a porno. Phlox to T'Pol and Trip: "It's a good thing we aren't on cable, or the decontamination procedure would involve a hot, sweaty, naked sex scene."

Also, does it really have to be such a quick trip to Klingon space? Just a few days there and a few days back? Surely, this ship is far slower than the TOS Enterprise. And there's no need for it. Archer's dialogue could just as easily have been, "Just 3 weeks there and 3 weeks back." Given that the trip to the Klingon planet is interrupted anyway, it wouldn't particularly have changed the plot. If Klingon space is really just a few days away for this primitive Enterprise, then so much for space exploration - everything is apparently just a couple days' drive away! It's something I can squint at and overlook if later episodes don't repeat this kind of marginalization of the vastness of space... but it does grate, particularly in that it bespeaks a certain laziness which does not raise hopes for future episodes.

On its own merits, though, Broken Bow is a fair pilot, with several strong elements and much potential to be turned into a strong series. I can't make myself feel entirely optimistic about the series to come. Still, I have seen far worse pilots to shows that I've ended up loving (Babylon 5 springs to mind), so... we'll see how it goes.


Rating: 6/10

Next Episode: Fight or Flight

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